US-Physicist Carl Modes just joined the Research Faculty of the CSBD and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG): With his group, Modes seeks to leverage principles and methods of applied topology and geometry in order to better understand complex biological phenomena, with a particular focus on the role of network complexity in these systems. This Systems Biophysics approach could in the future enable the development of diagnostic capabilities from analytical signatures in the network structure of organ vasculature, especially in the brain.

Carl Modes did his PhD in Soft Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Pennsylvania. He then moved to the UK to work as a postdoc at the University of Cambridge. Until recently, Modes did postdoctoral work at the Center for Studies in Physics and Biology at The Rockefeller University. “It is very exciting to be part of bringing this new center here in Dresden to life,” Modes says. The CSBD brings together theory people and biologists to foster the exchange of ideas across both discipline and institutional boundaries.